I'm pretty much doing that now and STILL banking a little.

I haven't even started my 401K minimum withdrawals yet.

Having a paid for house makes it possible.

I’d be elated to get $3800 a month…

But right now they are telling us that in 2034 SS will only pay 79 % of their obligations due to being underfunded.

I’d rather do an off grid tiny home. There are a lot for places in the USA you can buy land and put up a tiny home/shed for less than your $50k and have no bills at all… and then live off of that social security.

It’s not a lot different than my retirement plan-I have a cabin on acreage that is solar powered and pretty damned comfortable. I don’t want to retire there but I can if I want to.

What percent have good enough health/mobility to really be "living it up" once that get over that 70/75 yo threshold anyway? You're probably not going to need to buy gas for your $150k offshore boat, and you're probably not going to shoot a thousand rounds a year of 9mm (I meant to say per month), when you're 75. You'll go out to eat a couple times a week, go visit the grandkids a couple times a year, but otherwise you'll eat your favorite breakfasts, lunches and dinners every week, and watch tv and work on a few little projects.

I think my parents did this. Depression era children, dad a WWII vet, 8th grade education. Mom graduated HS.

I think they made it on a combination of SS and pensions. Mom had some part time jobs after retirement, mostly for the socialization (dad passed a few years after he retired) I think.

Damn few people get the max benefits though.
Damn few.

Did you really just ignore the 1st and 2nd paragraph of my post so you could rebut the 3rd paragraph of my post?  

Classic

My MIL doesn't work and lives off SS and the little her husband left behind when he died. (way less than $50K) She somehow manages to do it even in an expensive area like Long Island.

The people who retire with 1 mil plus in retirement accounts are far and away the minority. It's the same as people who make 6 figures working from home. Does it happen? Sure does, but it's not common for most people. Most people scrape by. The median household income in the US is 75k, which is 2 people making 18 bucks an hour 40 hours a week. I know plenty of seniors who retired with some money, and live on social security, but not millions of dollars in retirement accounts. Defined pension jobs left here decades ago. The ones with pensions and social security are living high on the hog, and the rest live in houses bought decades ago and are paid off, or in a single or double wide they bought in their 50s, and may still have a mortgage on it but it's cheap.

Most seniors who retire aren't buying airplanes, yachts, motor homes, travelling the world, and staying at their lake house when the weather is nice. Most are living at home, watching (or, more commonly than you would think, raising) their grandkids. They grocery shop every 2 weeks, may eat out every once in a while, and go through the motions.

Ya'll need to get out and interact with the common people and stop basing everything you read on the internet as gospel. You can easily retire with under 1 mil in retirement accounts, as most people do. It's just more keeping up with the Joneses. Most Arfcommers are buried in credit card debit, car payments, and mortgages just like a lot of other Americans trying to live like the 1% and show off how awesome and rich they are on social media.

you're not the typical billy badass billionaire b**ma MMA fighter tough guy hard case pronstar chef navy squeal GDer who fights the holy war in his shorts and has the harem of hairless below their eyelashes 20 year old yurpean supermodels, broseidon?

USA Today

There are 65,000,000 people on welfare in the US.

Average household income is $75,0000.


That means a whole lot of households make whatever government assistance equals and a whole lot make $250,000+

That average is probably about right. At “retirement” the government assistance folks will have whatever is left from last weeks check.

$50K in savings is only fine if you are 100% debt free.

Some want to live at a more expensive level, great but my taking (62) early SS is less than $1,100.00 and I live fine, even nice, do what I want shoot as much as I want buy what I want but here is the reason
I am 75 and simply no longer want to obtain and conquer. I have 6X that 50 but never touch it. I play with maybe $10K and another 30K for whatever may happen but the 90% savings is for my daughter and a means to collect some interest until then.
But, I am unique. I was a photojournalist (when we used film to take pictures) and a part time travel writer that played with some racing and all the hobbies when I was young when most people are busting their butts to make coin I made coin playing.
Now I want low stress casual living and I have it.

If you intend on traveling twice a year with Abercrombie and Kent (great trips BTW did some stories on them) and leasing a new S-class in a high dollar neighborhood then you will need that million or more but if you retire from spending sprees and competing with others and can actually be honest in what will make your life a happy one, no debts, all capital requirements done, you can do $50K in savings but IMO $250+ will make you feel better.
Whatever live style you desire is the one you need to prepare for not mine, not Elon Musks'  yours
IMO  

Well you might make it as far as Mississippi or even Ohio!

So glad I have a state pension.  I'm bringing home as much as when I was working. And yes have some money laid back.

Saw a ton of it in the oilfield.  Rig hands will spend money with such reckless abandon that even a drunken sailor would be ashamed.

I could retire and live solely off savings right now at so long as I die by December.

But if I work until the usual age, my 401k should be paying 4x my alleged SS income. I'll be fine even if SS goes away.

I have been playing around with the Monte Carlo simulator on honest math website, it does help lay out some good ranges of how far your savings should last at certain withdrawal rates. The rule of thumb 4% withdrawal rate seems to be consistent with the honest math website. So it seems to come down to understanding your bills and the wild cards are house, car and medical.

The next part that really makes you realize the importance of saving early and the power of compounding is to look at how much money you have to put back at what age to meet some retirement target. The numbers aren’t bad if you start early but as you wait until later they start to scale so quickly that if you don’t have a plan to start saving early it’s tough. you wish there was a way  that somebody could put back $12k into a savings account when the child is born.  If somebody did that and it was invested in an equity fund making historical returns it would in theory generate the  asset base to provide the $69k median house hold income when they retired at age 65 assuming nobody put another dime into the account,

To achieve the equivalent of maximum Social Security benefits, you would need to invest approximately:

$6,492 at birth to generate $32,520 annually starting at age 62.
$7,706 at birth to generate $45,864 annually starting at age 66-67.
$8,221 at birth to generate $58,476 annually starting at age 70.

Food for thought:

My take home pay went up 75% when I retired.

That homeowner's number needs to be at least 2-3 times that amount.

Nope, I ain't. I'm a 35 year old who bought a duplex in town because its what I could afford, and has come to the realization that the farm I ultimately want to buy is at least 10 years away or never, and have accepted it. I've done a deep dive on myself, figured out what is realistic and what isnt, and have come to terms with it. I'm never going to be rich, and that's fine. I find my peace and happiness through relationships and trying to understand how previous generations did it, and find comfort in that our ancestors have been through much harder times with smiles and hope, and that there is no reason why we can't too. There is happiness and hope to be had still, no matter what you make, and don't let the false and true Richie riches on this site and on social media get you down.

@JLPettimoreII

Retire at 60, die at 61, $50k is fine.